Promised Land
by Mary Sue Granny
Summary: Several months after Neelix has been left behind on the asteroid with the remnant of the Talaxians a new challenge arrives. With the threat of a possible Borg attack against both the Talaxian colony and Earth, important decisions must be made. First fic!


PROMISED LAND

Neelix sat in his room on the Talaxian asteroid and thought over the last few months he had lived with the remnant of his people.

The longer he had been there the more he realized that this was not the way Talaxians should live. Now if he could only talk the Council into seeing the necessity of moving on to find a new place, a real planet where they could live out in the open, on a real world where they could see the sky, till the soil, where their children could play in fresh air and be free. And where, best of all, there would be no reason to restrict the number of children a family could have.

The only problem was that the Council was made up of a bunch of old and stuffy seniors. And "stuffy" was not a term Neelix believed should ever be used to describe a Talaxian.

Just as he had just about talked himself into going to the Council and trying once again to talk to them about trying to find a real world to move to, the alarms went off in a screeching repetitive tone -- warning that the alien miners were attacking again. Neelix had thought that the _Voyager_ crew had settled that problem, but they seemed to have failed.

He jumped up and ran out of his door to see others running to their battle stations.

He took off to the one he had been assigned -- the medical center. Even though he had been elected Leader of the Talaxians, his work on _Voyager_ with the doctor had given him experience that none of the other Talaxians on this asteroid had with treating injuries. So when an emergency occured his post was at the medcenter -- leaving the elders on the council to meet in the mayor's office. They would contact him if they needed his input in any decisions that needed to be made in regards to the emergency.

As he rushed into the medcenter he was met by Farnix, the chief of the medical team.

"Relax, Neelix, it is not an attack -- the alarms went off because the Borg have been sighted, but they are not attacking us, they have gone on by -- it looks like they are trying to rebuild the wormhole to your friends' quadrant."

Neelix stood still for a moment, then turned and left, thinking to himself -- _"well this is just another reason to talk to the council about moving out of this asteroid and onto a real world."_

As he left the medcenter, he continued thinking. _"Looks as if I may have a bit more 'leverage' with the members now. They owe their existence to the crew of the _Voyager_."_

-

It wasn't really a long walk to the council chambers; it wasn't a long walk to anywhere inside the asteroid where the Talaxians lived.

But Neelix was so busy thinking over what he was going to say that he found he had walked past the building by almost a block before he realized it. He stopped, looked around and realized he had overshot his destination, and leaned against the wall of the little tailor shop he was standing in front of.

_"Now just what am I going to say?"_ he thought. _"Do I just walk in and say 'We have to go and go now'?"_

"Yep," he said aloud. "That's just what I am going to do!"

He straightened up, turned around and headed back to the council building -- this time paying attention to his destination.

Bang! Bang! He knocked on the door loud enough so that he would be sure to be heard.

He was right, it was only a moment until the door swung open and a slightly startled Snex, the mayor himself, opened the door.

"Neelix!" he said, a bit too loudly. "Well, I guess I should not be surprised. When the alarm went off and we found out what it was all about, it crossed my mind that you might show up. Going to try to get us to leave here again?"

"Not just leave," said Neelix, as he walked into the room. "We must go to Earth and warn them that the Borg are building a new wormhole. They deserve to be warned. None of you would be alive now if it was not for them. It is time to repay what they did for us."

"There is no excuse now for staying here," Neelix continued. "Sooner or later the Borg will be done with their new wormhole and will turn their attention not only on Earth but also on us -- we cannot expect to be left alone here anymore."

Neelix, remembering how Captain Janeway treated all her crew like family, finished, "I know that Captain Janeway will see to it that we are given a welcome to Earth and will find us a place where we can live there in safety."

"Come in," replied Snex, "the rest of the council is here and believe it or not that is just what we have been discussing."

-

Author's Note: I am an old granny, and only write fan fics because my daughters and grandson nag -- so if you want more chapters in this story you will have to join the nagfest by leaving me reviews and telling me to update.


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